The airlines can certainly defend what they're doing under a "greatest good for the greatest number" philosophical construct. But where they can and should be blamed, it seems to me, is in not sharing more information and giving travelers a clear, if cold, picture of when they're likely to get on a plane again. Their computers are far too sophisticated to justify the chaos and uncertainty that was air travelers' lot in the Northeast.

The chaos comes, in some part, because people don't want to accept the truth.

On the greatest-good argument: By "pre-positioning" planes in advance of the storm, the airlines did a great job of not disrupting travel elsewhere in the country. In the old days, a storm like this would gum up the entire system because a plane whose day was to involve flying from L.A. to Cleveland to Boston to Baltimore to Phoenix to L.A. would get stuck in the snow at Boston, meaning that a Phoenix-to-L.A. passenger could find his or her flight canceled even though it was totally balmy in both cities.

Now, the airline might divert the same plane at Cleveland, or even draw up a completely new itinerary for it, bypassing the Northeast. That's bad news for, say, a guy named Frank and his family trying to get home to Tucson after spending Christmas with relatives in New Jersey. But even in the middle of the storm, the airlines know to a degree of about 98 percent certainty exactly when Frank et al. are going to get on a plane and go home. If they just leveled with him, Frank and his family could stay with the Jersey relatives, if the Jersey relatives will still have them, or at least find some place to stay for a night or two other than the cold floor of an airport terminal.

Of course, leveling with customers will have its downsides: many will grow irate if an agent looks them in the eye and says, "Sorry, but you're not getting home until Wednesday at 4," rather than saying, "We have no information at this time but are trying to get you home just as soon as possible." The success of a more honest system would depend on most passengers being willing to take the bad news and adjust accordingly.

The chaos comes, in some part, because people don't want to accept the truth. By staying on the floor, by haranguing an agent, by screaming, by pleading ... somehow, they think, I can alter the fates and get home -- or to the beach in Barbados -- sooner than when the airline already knows I will be there.